Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
There’s that big question that’s been following us around for thousands of years; what does it mean to be human? It ties in with what is the meaning of life? Some say 42. Understanding what it means to be human is at the core of anthropology. It is explored in sociology and psychology.
As we enter the Digital Age and advances in cognitive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), we may find that one of the greatest benefits of A.I. is that we learn more than we ever have before about what it means to be human.
The launch of Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and DALL-E slammed like a freight train hitting a brick wall into our collective global awareness in 2022. We saw the technology industry hype machine swing into full throttle like engines revving at the start of a Formula One race. A collective burst perhaps bigger than the first dot com boom.
My Mallory heart
Is sure to fail
I could crawl around the floor
Just like I’m real
Like you.
- Gary Numan, Metal
The conversations have largely been split into three camps; advocates, alarmists and the dumbfounded. No matter where you stand, the reality is that we suddenly brought into the lightness of the public square, the existential questions of our time; good, bad and ugly. This is quite wonderful.
Predicting any reliable outcome would be foolish at best and is more akin to tilting at windmills. So what is wonderful about the hype and the chatter? The fact that we are exploring what it really does mean to be human as A.I. continues to evolve.
Most of the technologies that we have developed since stone tools have helped us survive and sometimes thrive. We’ve used culture as the code to guide their use and development through the telling of stories. The use of language, one of the most important and valuable technologies we’ve ever developed.
Not only does A.I. pressure us to look at what it means to be human at a philosophical, inward level, but also at a physical level and even a global and total awareness level. Our very place in the universe.
At the physical level, A.I. tools such as Macine Learning, Neural Networks and others, combined with our collective medical knowledge, helps us look deep into our bodies and brains. To find new antibiotics, to understand how cells and brains work. A.I. augments us and goes where even many minds can’t. The insights it delivers allows our minds to imagine the next steps and to leapfrog.
The sound of metal
I want to be
You
I could learn to be a man
Like you.
- Gary Numan, Metal
The same happens with our understanding of nature itself. Combining certain A.I. technologies can help us understand the role of humanity in terms of the bigger picture in nature. Not only can it help us understand climate change and how to deal with it, but makes us more aware of the role of plants and our fellow animals and how we are but a small part in the bigger scheme of things.
A.I. may help us understand how to work together better in a hyper-connected global society. How to deal with racism and issues of gender and religious diversity. It may help us figure out new systems of societal governance and economic models like capitalism.
I’m not implying any sense of a wonderful utopian future. That is impossible given what we know about the human condition and Black Swans.
But A.I. has now sparked some of these more profound discussions in a way no other technology has really done at global scale. Every new communications technology revolution from language to the printing press to the internet, has helped us understand ourselves, one another and our societies and cultures better. To always, eventually, progress.
Some form of fundamental societal change has always followed. It would be foolish to think this time is any different. How these changes will come about, what our sociocultural systems will look like is anyone’s guess. But A.I. will help us imagine new futures and technology is always the result of human imagination.
Changes to global societies have taken a while before. This is the first time in the history of our species that we’ve been able to communicate so fast at a global scale.
And while there will be challenges, dangers and difficulties, the amazing thing is that we’re exploring what it means to be human at a global scale, unlike ever before. That is quite something. Who knows, maybe the answer is 42?
